Monthly Archives: December 2014

I received the book, Matches made in Heaven by Sundari Venkatraman as a review copy and am going to review it story by story.

The third story in this book is Red Rose Dating Agency. Ritika, who runs a dating agency, is in a dilemma about finding a date for Sadashiv Prasad, a nerd who comes looking for a date, a date with many qualities.

My take:

What a story idea! I liked the way the story took a major turn. The characters are very likable. Another must read from the book.

I received the book, Matches made in Heaven by Sundari Venkatraman as a review copy and am going to review it story by story.

The third story in the book is ‘An Arranged Match’. It is the story of Ritu, who wants a love marriage, but her parents are holding a gun to her head. The Raja and his wife were keen to meet her as a prospective wife for their second son. At the Mumbai airport, on the way home, she meets Yash and they travel on the same flight to Jaipur. She goes on to Pushkar the next day and he goes home only to find that his parents want him to meet the Choudharys in Pushkar for matrimonial purpose. He agrees only to reject the Choudhary girl and surprise Ritu.

My take:

A very sweet story with a happy ending. Ritu is the typical young girl who dreams of a love marriage and Yash is the good son doing things to please his parents. I really loved the story.

I received the book, Matches made in Heaven by Sundari Venkatraman as a review copy and am reading and reviewing it story by story enjoying every morsel.

Beauty is but skin deep is the second story in the book. It is the story of twenty two year old Simran who comes to her mother’s best friend’s house in Delhi from Mumbai because her father had hurt her confidence with his lack of love and insensitivity. The last straw was when her prospective bridegroom also wanted to marry her younger sister, the swan. And then Nitin walks into his home, meets his houseguest, Simran and thinks change.

My take:

An interesting story. The author has actually discussed a topic that holds a very important place in the Indian society, the skin colour. The characters are loveable and the language is simple and the flow is good,

I received the book, Matches made in Heaven by Sundari Venkatraman as a review copy and am going to review it story by story.

Groomnapped is the first story in Sundari Venkatraman’s love story collection, Matches made in Heaven. It is the story of Ameya, the only son of the local millionaire of Paliganj in Patna, who is in in love with Surekha, the eldest of three daughters of a poor family. While his parents expected a big dowry, her parents were planning to pawn their house for a small one. Ameya was convinced that his family didn’t need the dowry money or jewellery but his parents were equally adamant about getting as much as they could from their prospective daughter-in-law. Ameya contacts his best friend Vivek, a journalist in Mumbai, and they make a brilliant plan.

My take:

I loved the story and the way it has been written. The best about the story is that it is four pages long and can be read in a short time. The author has described the scenes well and I could actually visualize them.

Sometimes, we start searching for something on the internet and end up somewhere else. This is what happened when I logged on to rediff.com on my phone one Friday evening and was surprised to see Preeti Shenoy’s new book, It Happens For a Reason in the books section. The first thing I did was order the book and read it as soon as I received it.

The blurb:

When Vipasha, Vee to friends, eighteen and single, makes the decision to have her baby, she does more than give up her promising modeling career. She ends up cutting ties with her family and with Ankush, the man she thought she was in love with. Fast-forward sixteen years and she now has two unusual careers – she runs a dog-boarding facility and is a gym instructor. Aryan thinks she is the coolest mom in the world and hopes she will one day find her Prince Charming – exactly what her best friend Suchi has in mind for her. But Vee secretly has a thing for Saurabh, the quirky vet.

Then, out of the blue, Ankush comes back into their life.

But can a decision that was taken at eighteen – more in the throes of lust than love-be the basis of a lifelong relationship? Is there a future for Ankush and Vee? Vee, Aryan and Ankush are in for the ride of their lives. No seat belts, full speed and a very bumpy road ahead

The story:

Vee or Vipasha Mishra has had a lonely childhood with her mother being a busy socialite and her father busy making money. To top it all, she is sent off to a boarding school in Kerala before she turns eight. There she meets Suchi, who bcomes her soul sister, her best friend and someone who makes her life complete. She spends her vacations with Suchi at the latter’s home in Kerala and relates to Suchi’s mother, Ammu, better than her own. During one of these vacations, she meets Ankush Bhargav, a classmate of Suchi’s cousin. She is attracted to him, falls in love, gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby much against everyone’s wishes when she is just eighteen. Again her parents leave her in a hospital in Kerala, and her mother cuts off her ties with her and Ammu comes to the rescue.

Now, sixteen years later, Vee is 34, a single mother, lives with her son, Aryan, 15, in Bangalore in her old family mansion (at her father’s suggestion) which she has converted into a boarding house for dogs, the Paw-Factor. She opens Paw Factor at Manav’s suggestion. Manav is Ankush’s friend who has managed to keep in touch with Vee even after so many years. To make ends meet, she works as an instructor in a gym. Jamu Kaku, who has been with her since Aryan was less than three years old, lives in the outhouse, helps with the dogs and is the general caretaker when she is away.

Suchi and her husband, Prakash, have always been around and have stood by her like pillars of rock and spend time with Aryan. They are always trying to suggest suitable matches for her which finds unsuitable because not one of them can hold a candle to Ankush. Suddenly, one day she finds herself attracted to Saurabh, the local vet, who is not attracted to her.

And then to top it all, she receives a phone call from Manav saying that Ankur wants to get in touch with ankus. Her whole world changes……………..

As Manav said, It happens for a reason.

My take:

I loved the story more than her other books maybe because it is the story of first love rekindled. The characters are very realistic and well developed and the author has described the relationships very well. The story is a mix of romance, drama, emotions and relationships be it mother-son, father-daughter or best friends.

I received Angelic Beats by Sarita Singh as a review copy from the Book Club and would like to thank Rubina for the same. Angelic Beats is the story of a nineteen year old boy, Sahil, falling in love with a lady who is five years older than him and married one at that. Sahil meets Aakansha at a friend’s house and falls in love with her. Slowly, she starts to reciprocate his feelings and their love grows. But, she is married.

My take:

I loved the way the author has written the story in first person describing Sahil’s feelings. That she has put in a lot of research in the book, shows in the way she has described Sahil’s time at the academy. Though, the story revolves around an extra marital affair, the author has shown a different aspect.

Warning: Please, I repeat, please, do not read the prologue of the book, it will spoil the climax.

Aditya runs a gaming company that is struggling to break even. A banker slips off a highrise building, plunging to her death. The finance minister has made some promises that he is finding hard to keep. The LTTE has unleashed terror in America that sends the FBI on a wild goose chase, bringing them to Mumbai.

Enter Varun, parttime drug dealer and fulltime genius. He turns around the gaming company before disaster strikes. Meanwhile, the investigators plunge headlong into

the shady world of bitcoins and the Dark Net, websites that only exist for illegal transactions—drugs, sex and money. God Is a Gamer culminates in a stunning climax where money means nothing, assassination is taught by the ancient Greeks, and nothing is as it seems.

Described as the ‘John Grisham of banking’, by the Wall Street Journal, Ravi Subramanian, an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, is the author of five bestselling commercial novels—If God was a Banker (2007), Devil in Pinstripes (2009), The Incredible Banker (2011), The Bankster (2012) and Bankerupt (2013)—based on financial crime. His latest book God is a Gamer, releases on September 12th.

Having been a banker himself, he has a unique insight into the industry he writes about and a flair for spinning intricate plots that keep readers on the edge of their seats

His debut novel, If God was a Banker, won the 2008 Golden Quill Readers’ Choice Award and, more recently, The Incredible Banker won the 2011 Economist-Crossword Book Award in the ‘Popular’ category. He won the Crossword book award for The BANKSTER in 2012.

Ravi lives in Mumbai with his Biotechnologist turned banker wife, Dharini and his fourteen year old daughter Anusha.